The Perfect Trap
by ardavenport
Summary: Darth Sidious teaches his apprentice his true secret to defeating the Jedi.


**THE PERFECT TRAP**

by ardavenport

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The door slid aside just barely in time for the Sith Lord to enter, a whole squad of white-armored Clone Troopers behind him. They crossed the expansive office, up the steps to the lone figure standing by the window wall view of the towers of Coruscant at night.

"Master." He knelt, bowing low before Darth Sidious. "There is a Jedi assassin on the way here."

Sidious, otherwise known as Emperor Palpatine of the First Galactic Empire (formerly the Galactic Republic) lazily turned toward his apprentice. "I know."

"You . . . know, my Master?" Darth Vader's deep, machine-generated voice reflected his surprise.

"Of course, I know." A hint of impatience crept into Sidious's tone; Vader waited for his Master to continue.

A slow smiled twisting his lips, Sidious walked by the great window, the lighted towers of Coruscant's night skyline behind him. Vader followed respectfully.

"I know he is coming. I can feel him. His drive. His power. He is much more skilled than the last one." Sidious paused, his yellowed eyes lighting up under his black hood. "And much more instructive. Watch. And learn, my apprentice."

Sidious waved to the clone trooper squad. "Leave us."

The squad captain saluted, his features concealed by his helmet, betraying no surprise at this curious command. Vader sensed none; the captain was a clone; they were bred to obey and only fit for servitude.

Vader waited for more, but his Master only grinned, his eyes half-closed. Looking about the spacious, elegant office, the lesser Sith saw nothing out of place. He followed his Master's lead, lifting his head as if to test the air for a scent.

There was a disturbance . . . his senses in the Force were clouded by his scars, the mechanical life-support that breathed for him, digested his food, kept him alive. His Master had said that his acumen would return as he acclimated to his new condition. But it never did; the loss of arms and legs and vital organs was too great. He was still strong in the Force, but crippled compared to previous abilities, even before he embraced the Dark Side. He would never be strong enough to overthrow and defeat his Master.

His Master knew that as well.

Then Vader sensed it; someone approached. From outside. His hand jerked toward his lightsaber hilt, but his Master's hand – real flesh and blood and clawlike from the power it wielded – on his arm stopped him.

"No. Let him come."

Unhappily, Vader let his arm fall back to his side. Sidious moved back away from the desk, gliding down the steps. Vader followed, taking an expectant position facing the window.

Closer . . . closer . . . Vader sensed a heat of anticipation and . . . anger, strong and pure.

The window shattered. Thousands of shards came crashing, tumbling down, glinting and spinning inward . . . and were thrust aside by the tiniest gesture from the Dark Master.

Then the Jedi appeared, a broad-shouldered humanoid with bright green skin, graying dusty hair on his chin going from ear to ear. Ragged lengths of dingy brown cloth hung down over his pale tunic, one muscular shoulder exposed, two lightsabers, bright green and blue in his big fists.

It was Master Genkassir. He had commanded the 317th Legion. His sector had been taken by the end of the Clone Wars and was reported secure when the Emperor issued Order 66. Genkassir, like all the other Jedi had been caught off-guard when the clone troops turned their weapons on them. Genkassir had been reported killed when his shuttle was shot down, but there had been no body.

Now the rage poured out of the betrayed Jedi Master as he stepped to the side, his weapons ready, eyes fixed on Lord Sidious.

"Sith! All along, you were here, corrupting the Republic from the inside!"

Vader was astonished by the transformation, the power; he could see nothing but hate and anguish in the once patient and methodical man.

"And you Jedi were too blind to look under your own pride to find me." Sidious leered back at him. "It was almost too easy." His smile vanished. "Pathetic," he spat out. "Lord Vader," He waved a hand, "take care of this Jedi scum," and turned his back on the intruder.

Instantly Vader's lightsaber, the one he had built under Sidious's instruction, blazed red and he strode forward.

"What is this?" Genkassir took a step back, obviously not recognizing the person who had once been Anakin Skywalker under the black helmet, body armor and cloak.

"What monster have you constructed, Sith?" The Jedi contemptuously looked him up and down. "Is this the creature you sent to destroy the Temple? To murder the Jedi?"

Lord Sidious did not bother turning around and Vader placed himself between his Master and this threat. Genkassir struck first with savage power that Vader felt all the way up into his flesh-and-blood shoulders. His opponent whirled, two lightsaber blades spinning, fiery green and blue blurs. But Vader was a black wall and none of Genkassir's blows got past his defenses. All that twirling and whirling was pure wasted energy and it angered Vader. His black-gloved hand shot out, the Force slamming Genkassir back.

Losing his grip on both lightsabers, he went flying, tumbling backwards out through the window, the look of shock on his face wiping out that sweet rage. Going to the edge of broken window, Vader spied Genkassir down below, clinging to a ledge. Vader jumped, the Force carrying him up and down to land, standing over his opponent. He brought one booted foot down hard on Genkassir's fingers.

"Aaaaaaaaahhhhh!"

Vader pressed down harder, keeping the Jedi hanging in place. "You should not have come."

Though clearly defeated, Genkassir's eyes blazed with hatred and Vader paused at the yellow glint he saw in their green depths. The Jedi raised his free hand - -

Vader's red lightsaber blade cut downward and acrid smoke from crisped and charred bone and brain-matter rose up from below. A moment later the Dark Lord lifted his boot and the faceless corpse fell away from the ledge. Vader's lightsaber went out. The shock and anger over what he saw fading, he stared down toward the busy gray depths that the body had disappeared into for a long time.

Finally looking up toward his Master's office, Vader clipped his saber to his belt again. Sensitive to the tiny impulses of his brain, his mechanical legs crouched and he sprang upward to land on the ledge outside the shattered window-wall.

His Master was still there, now seated behind his wide black desk. There wasn't even a crew present to repair the damage to the office and they would have come instantly if Sidious had called. Striding up to him, Vader looked down at the older man with a face corrupted and deformed from his own battle with Jedi. Then, knowing his place, Vader knelt.

"The Jedi has been destroyed, my Master."

"Yes, I see," Sidious answered lazily. "And what did you see in him, Lord Vader?"

He knew. Lord Sidious had seen what was in the Jedi who had come to kill him. He was just amusing himself, passively lecturing his apprentice about how slowly he had learned that lesson. Vader bowed his head.

"I saw the Dark Side, my Master."

"Hmmm, yes. With sufficient training, he might have become quite proficient."

Anger flared, his mechanical fists tightening into grips that could have crushed metal. His Master wanted to replace him? So soon? After what he had done? After what he had been through?

His grin broadening, Sidious – the Emperor Palpatine – pushed himself up and strolled around the desk. He could always sense his apprentice's moods, sometimes even before Vader knew them.

"You would have taken him? Over me?"

"Yes, of course," he answered, flipping his affirmative out as if it were no consequence before his tone hardened. "As soon as you become weak enough to be defeated, then you _should_ be. _Never_ forget that, Lord Vader,"

Vader bowed his head. "Yes, My Master."

Sidious remained before him, his appraisal not yet over. He began to pace around the apprentice he had created. "And tell me . . . was he strong enough to defeat you?"

"He did not." Vader let his anger show in his voice. He had vanquished the enemy. "He was not strong enough in the Dark Side."

Sidious nodded agreeably. "True. He had barely embraced it. Barely seen its power before he came to assassinate us." He stopped his pacing and turned back to Vader, his black robe dragging on the floor. "But he was stronger than the others, my Apprentice. Much stronger. What does this tell you?"

Thinking about the Jedi stragglers who had returned to Coruscant to avenge the destruction of their Order and the Temple, and challenge the Sith rule of the galaxy, Vader puzzled over where his Master's questions were leading.

"They are not strong enough in the Dark Side to defeat us."

"Of course they are not," Sidious snapped. "Master Yoda himself could not defeat me because he was blind enough to rely only on the Light Side to fight me with."

Master Yoda had also managed to survive and escape and was currently in hiding. A dangerous enemy indeed to be unaccounted for. But Vader knew that his Master did not like to be reminded of that. "And if Master Yoda had embraced the Dark Side?"

"Then he might have won," Sidious answered with surprisingly little rancor, a smile on his face, the city light behind him, a hot night breeze rising up from the chasms below tugged at his black hood. His smile turned feral. "And he would have lost. Because to become powerful enough to defeat us, the Jedi must _become_ one of us."

Vader lowered his head, trying to work out what this meant. Sidious seemed to lose interest in instructing him and returned to his desk. "To defeat the Sith, you must _become_ a Sith, Lord Vader. So, the Sith will always win."

"But we would be defeated. You would be, My Master."

Sidious whipped a hand back at him, suddenly impatient. "That does not matter! Were you strong enough to defeat me, then _I_ would deserve to fall. But the Sith would still be victorious. It is the perfect trap that ensnared the Jedi who came to us tonight."

Vader nodded; it was the same trap that had claimed him as well. But if he had not found the Dark Side, his Master would have continued to use Dooku to end the Jedi, or trained some other apprentice to do it. And he would have died as Anakin Skywalker, futilely defending a doomed Temple. As he so often did, his Master seemed to sense his thoughts and his displeasure abated.

"I waited, Lord Vader, I accumulated power right on the Jedi's doorstep. I blinded them with deception. And I did not strike until I was more powerful with the Dark Side than any other Jedi or Sith had _ever_ been." He sat back in his chair, angular and black like a throne. "You fought Kenobi before you were ready, Lord Vader. And you have paid the price."

"Yes, my Master." Vader's deep artificial voice lowered to a near whisper with the revelation. He could never have defeated Sidious as a Jedi. And he had wasted his Sith powers on Kenobi. The bitterness of that realization burned inside him. But as his Master had taught him, he channeled that anger to increase his power, but . . .

. . . it was still not enough.

Sidious swung his chair around, turning the back of it to him. "You may think on that for now, Lord Vader. And send the techs in here to clean this place up." A waved hand dismissed him.

Vader bowed. "Yes, my Master." Turning, he descended the steps and crossed the spacious office to the door. He would watch and learn and look for his chance. Somewhere was the power to defeat the Emperor and he would find it.

His Master would expect no less of him.

Someday . . .

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**Disclaimer: **This story first posted on tf.n on - - - . All characters and the Star Wars universe belong to George and Lucasfilm; I am just playing in their sandbox.


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